Coinbase S-1 • Hacker News Board

Re: Coinbase S-1

#51

Post by anonyxyz » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:20 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #18

hestefisk wrote: post #2

Good for them. But am I the only one who finds it slightly ironic that the brainchild of distributed ledger tech and crypto currency capitalism is now filing for IPO in what is the hallmark of old capitalism (regulated markets)?

Well yeah, nobody uses crypto on its own, it's always in reference to fiat and Coinbase enables that.

See DeFi

Re: Coinbase S-1

#52

Post by capableweb » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:20 PM UTC

mlacks wrote: post #3

I use coinbase as it was the easiest and least sketchy way to buy a couple of years ago. I feel though that a lot of the big gains for a particular coin are made before coinbase authorizes that coin for trade on their platform. Can anyone provide some insight/ ELI5 as to why the coin selection is curated vs a free for all?

> Can anyone provide some insight/ ELI5 as to why the coin selection is curated vs a free for all?

Coinbase is a centralized exchange. Any support for new currencies have to researched, developed, tested, deployed and maintained (unless they are ERC20 tokens, then they'll require less of everything but still needs work to be added). So there is no way they can offer "free for all" as not all crypocurrencies are created equal.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#53

Post by rawtxapp » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:20 PM UTC

arnaudsm wrote: post #44

Many have forgotten why we used cryptocurrencies in the first place. The original promise of cryptocurrency was to become independent from banks. In the end CoinBase (like every exchange) is a great product, but just a bank. It's centralized, hackable, has economies of scale, etc.

It's an exchange, as soon as you're done trading, you can and should withdraw your coins to your personal wallet.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#54

Post by kgwgk » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:20 PM UTC

Maybe it will collapse before going public as WeWork did? Hopefully not, it will be interesting to watch.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#55

Post by Xixi » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:21 PM UTC

lucasverra wrote: post #40

globular-toast wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coinbase play within the rules of the current establishment.

Direct listing is kinda novel, nah ?

Slack and Spotify went the direct listing route, but indeed it’s pretty rare compared to IPOs.

Re: Coinbase S-1

#56

Post by capableweb » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:22 PM UTC

hestefisk wrote: post #2

Good for them. But am I the only one who finds it slightly ironic that the brainchild of distributed ledger tech and crypto currency capitalism is now filing for IPO in what is the hallmark of old capitalism (regulated markets)?

Coinbase is the brainchild behind cryptocurrencies? How? They were not the first, they are not the biggest, they don't have the most cryptocurrencies/platforms, they are not the fastest/cheapest/best support and so on.

In fact, I can't figure out a single thing that Coinbase is the best at in the cryptocurrency industry. So what do you mean with brainchild here?

Re: Coinbase S-1

#57

Post by dabeeeenster » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:22 PM UTC

anonu wrote: post #37

Love reading the risk factors section. First thought: how can a lay person possibly understood the risks as laid out here? Also they view this as a major risk: •the identification of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous person or persons who developed Bitcoin, or the transfer of Satoshi’s Bitcoins; Second thought, what an incredible business and growth. 1.14bn in revenue on 193bn in trading volume: thats 60bps on every…

I don't quite understand what the risk to coinbase is if Satoshi is alive/identified? Do they think he has a hack or something?!

Re: Coinbase S-1

#58

Post by kgwgk » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:23 PM UTC

andy_ppp wrote: post #29

mensetmanusman wrote: post #12

Do you think BTC is worth $500k? If so buy Coinbase.

This isn't even remotely necessary for Coinbase to do well - the only thing they need is for crypto currencies to be more widely used in 25 years.

Absolutely, the only thing they need. Because the barriers to entry are so high!

Re: Coinbase S-1

#59

Post by ArtWomb » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:23 PM UTC

Looking forward to this IPO. Besides the "crypto comes to main street" cultural aspects. The dark horse may be Coinbase's venture arm. This is quite the portfolio:

https://ventures.coinbase.com/

Number one priority with the new cash: addressing downtimes in periods of high trading activity / market volatility.

https://www.coindesk.com/how-coinbase-is-worth-100-billion

Re: Coinbase S-1

#60

Post by pmorici » Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 1:23 PM UTC

mlacks wrote: post #3

I use coinbase as it was the easiest and least sketchy way to buy a couple of years ago. I feel though that a lot of the big gains for a particular coin are made before coinbase authorizes that coin for trade on their platform. Can anyone provide some insight/ ELI5 as to why the coin selection is curated vs a free for all?

It takes work to support trading if a coin. Coinbase in particular is conservative about listing new coins because they don’t want to run afoul of sec rules and list coins that qualify as securities. They blogged about what factors they consider when listing new coins a few years back. Coinbase is often the last to list a coin and rarely the first so if you only use Coinbase you are getting in later to n the game. The exchanges that list every junk coin under the sun though are often offshore and hire risk in many regards.